Midweek Special: NYC Restaurant Review Roundup
Flex Mussels
The Village Voice's Robert Sietsema discovers South Indian restaurant Southern Spice in Flushing, and files a rave review that begins, "Sometimes a restaurant makes such an impression that it changes your way of thinking about an entire cuisine...Dish after dish was astonishing in the power and immediacy of its flavors." His colleague Sarah DiGregorio checks out two East Village cured-meat "specialists," Cure and Ballaro. The former "looks like a boudoir—a boudoir stocked with meat and cheese...Stick with the meat for best results. Even the most successful salad is made mostly of meat—a mess of a half-dozen kinds of chopped charcuterie, rendered even less healthy by the addition of sliced fresh mozzarella, all on top of a portion of mixed greens. The quiches, unfortunately, are heated to sogginess in a microwave." And over at Ballaro, "the proprietors are more serious about their food."
NY Mag's Adam Platt files respectable two star reviews on the recently opened Aldea (photos) and Apiary, which switched chefs not too terribly long ago: "With its pocket-size kitchen, its small but sophisticated menu, and its technically accomplished, low-profile chef, Aldea looks like a prototype of the gourmet restaurant of tomorrow, and maybe it is." Regarding the latter, he deems Apiary's new toque Scott Bryan "another one of New York’s more gifted under-the-radar chefs...Dining at this new version of Apiary is bracing and even a little discombobulating, like riding in the back seat of your sister’s Mini Cooper, which has suddenly been commandeered by Dale Earnhardt Jr."
Danyelle Freeman at the Daily News likes Nolita's new Roman-style trattoria Emporio, where the pizza crusts "are so terrifically crunchy and thin, they're more like Frisbee-size crackers. The best pizzaiolas—the guys making the pies—are true chefs. You won't find generic Italian dishes of the Caprese salad or penne pomodoro sorts. 'When in Rome' is a cliché for good reason. It's a fine credo for dining out. When at Emporio, get the lamb scottadito. In Italian, scottadito translates to "burn your finger," meaning use your hands and gnaw the meat off the bone."
And Time Out's Jay Cheshes is the latest critic to weigh in on the gigantic robotayaki grill Inakaya, located in the New York Times Building. He's unimpressed: "Inakaya is hardly the shrine to ingredients you might expect it to be... The whole grilled branzino, featuring flaccid skin and little grill flavor, was remarkably dull... The meal ends as it begins: with predictable, muted flavors.... Despite the splashy stage they’re served on, neither Inakaya’s sweet nor savory dishes will turn Times Square into a Japanese-food destination."
